Not another compsand

General Discussion
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Finally finished my first board. Another balsa compsand. Took about 4 months!!

Firstly thanks to the compsand crew for inspiration, tips and pm advice, especially Silly!!

I wanted an alternative to my fish for small waves to surf more in the pocket. So went for a small wave quad. I finished up with about 90% to what I set out to make. The blending of the shape and finish are a bit crude but it goes!! Made mistakes at every step, but learnt heaps!!

I’m average size, about 5’9" and 154 pounds.

The boards is…

6’ long.

19 1/4" wide, 2" behind centre

Nose 12 1/2" wide

Tail 15" wide

Thickness 2 1/8"

Rocker 4 1/4" nose; 2 1/4" tail.

Put in far too much vee and concaves too deep, and mistakenly put in a rounded bottom up front playing around with the vacuum bag too much.

Build is 3.8 ounce glass, 1/8" balsa, 3.8 deck…

3.8, 1/16", 3.8 bottom…

And 5 layers of 1/8" on rails.

Weight without fins is 2.2kg or 4.8 pounds. Shocked me how light it came out.

Anyways, some photos, more to come

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Too much vee and concave



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Then trashed the nose in a 3 foot shoredump. Partly a fluky piledriver into the sand, and carving too much balsa off the rails when shaping I think



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So how does it go?

First real surf this morning. Chest to slightly overhead. Mix of softish and steep lefts, some sectioning most peeling along nicely. What I’d usually use the fish for.

Paddled ok - quick to get up to wave catching speed. Light weight I guess.

Sinks to about diaphram when sitting on it.

Catches waves ok, and easy to adjust when dropping in.

Seems to plane easily, but not as well over flat spots as I hoped - too much vee again I think.

First time riding a quad but only took a couple of waves to get the feel of it. Loose like my twin keeled fish, but turns really sharp at speed and can be pushed through a turn much harder. Goes really fast turning off the top, and can draw out a nice turn around sections.

But feels neutral when trimming, doesn’t drag like a thruster.

Easy to surf up, over and around the whitewater and lip.

Again the light weight allows heaps of control over it.

Not so sure about flex, probably more surtech than sunova.

So all in all I’m stoked with first board and about the start the next one a 5’8" fish.

Thanks again swayers!!

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hey Karl

thats a really nice looking board

your doing real tidy work

i can see what your saying about extreme concaves

im pretty much make all mine flat

that way there is less variables to worry about

not to mention how these thing affect flex

i got a consistent flex build now

so i can start to play with design a bit more in the future

the weired thing is that a strong as these boards are

i always manage a bad situation and get some sort of damage om my personal boards

from either or ankledeep shingle/submerged rocks

the places i surf eat pupees though

the last balsa i used all 6 oz outside (for ding proofing) cuz im so hard on boards

weight was bit more, but still light

im happy to get a good flex even with a lot of outerglass

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board looks great Karl.

thanks for the ride report

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what sorta vent ya got there mate?

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Thanks Paul. I found the balsa easier to do than the final glassing, hot coat etc.

Next board I’ll use 2 ounce cloth inside and I’ve got some 3/32" for the deck. I noticed once I got the deck on it stiffened up alot.

Hey Hunter. The vent is just a stainless steel screw cast into epoxy, then glassed into the board. A rubber o-ring seals it. Surprised it works. Hope it lasts. I need to make a wider cast so I can countersink the screw in to make it flush.

I’ve got some goretex type material (but not goretex) that I’m gonna experiment with to make a constantly breathable vent.

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Nice effort.